Category Archives: Gt Academy

Having your dreams go from virtual-to-reality is what the Nissan GT Academy is all about. And, for Wisconsin native Nic Hamman his dreams of becoming a professional racer have come true.

He was the GT Academy Season 4 Champion and dominated the competition right from the start. In the first episode, the 12 competitors were put through an intense physical race, and Hamman finished long before any of the other racers. From there, Hamman’s performance never waned.

In the season finale, Hamman raced against the remaining three other contestants in an eight-lap race. He finished a full eight seconds ahead of the pack.

“It takes a lot of money to do any kind of professional racing,” said Hamman, in a statement. “What GT Academy and Nissan have done is give someone a shot at racing top-notch racing cars with professional mechanics and pit support without the financial windfall that kind of thing requires. I am so grateful to be able to do this, and I can’t wait to get to my first professional race in January.”

Hamman grew up with a love of motorsports and spent much of his childhood racing go karts and even won his fair share of races and local karting titles.

Here at Bates Nissan, we are excited to see how Hamman will perform as a professional Nissan racer. He will be racing with previous GT Academy winners in the Dubai 24 Hours on January 8-10.

If anyone ever questioned the effectiveness of Nissan’s GT Academy program, they may want to look at its increasingly impressive track record. The latest entry features yet another victory at Silverstone last weekend in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Buncombe started third on the grid, but got boxed behind a Porsche and lost several positions. He handed the car off the McMillen in eighth overall and first in the Pro-Am class. McMillen fell back one place because of radio communication issues inside the car, but Strauss managed to regain the position during the last hour of the race to claim the Pro-Am victory.

“I was in traffic during most of my run so I had to be very careful to avoid any problems,” Strauss said. “We were close in Monza and definitely had the speed, so I am very pleased that we achieved the win here today.”

The GT Academy is a one-of-a-kind program designed to push the best video game racers to the limit and test their ability to convert their virtual skills into reality. The program has already helped to fulfill the dreams of many gamers who are now professional drivers with Nissan, including Lucas Ordonez, who is now expected to compete in the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hours race.

The GT Academy is a one-of-a-kind program designed to push the best video game racers to the limit and test their ability to convert their virtual skills into reality.

The competition began with over 400,000 racing enthusiasts all doing their best to best each other in the latest iteration of the long-standing PlayStation Gran Turismo franchise. The top 32 contenders were be sent to New York City to participate in the National Finals. Only 12 remained after a series of virtual, media, and real-life driving challenges; the dozen finalists will then be tested at the legendary Silverstone race track in the U.K. In the end, only one driver will be selected to race for Nissan after passing a series of physical, psychological, and athletic challenges and logging an extensive amount of track time in the Nissan 370z, Nissan GT-R, and Nissan JUKE NISMO.

The first episode of Season 3 of Nissan GT Academy will air on SPIKE TV at 10:30 ET on November 11th. If you just want to drive a regular Nissan without having to go through the trouble of hours of competitive training, just stop by Bates Nissan! We’ll hook you up.